Session # 11 :

Reminders

For Juniors

• Get your letters written to the Archbishop! You don't want to be spotted out by him for not submitting one.
• Confirmation Names: If the candidate has a Saints name for a first name, no problem. This Archbishop wants kids to choose the name of saint (sorry we just found out!) and I would tell the kids to go online to find out if they have a saints name (maybe their middle name is one.) Have them go on the parish web site and click on Confirmation. I will have links for Saints names on that web page.
• Large Group, at St. James this weekend!

For Sophomores

Sophomore Day (March 28th) is coming up. Every Sophomore got a letter and we will be doing a full day so the kids don't have class on that Sunday. Teachers are welcome to attend! For those students who can't make the trip to the Art Museum we should be back at GS about 5:00.

Materials Needed

Paper and pencils.

Background Main Objective

I am not a big fan of Gibson's The Passion of Christ. For a guy who says he's a devout Catholic he's made a very protestant movie. (Don't get me started about the depiction of the Jewish leaders!). The Jesus of this film endures super human abuse. This only emphasizes Jesus' (and therefore God's) difference and separation from human kind. It's as if to say that humanity is so base and intrinsically awful that only a Divine dose of gore and violence will redeem us. This is a protestant viewpoint. What sets Jesus apart, what makes Jesus the Christ is the resurrection.

No book this week, just my thoughts to reinforce our (Catholic) understanding of the passion. You can blame Mel for this!

Starter

Begin the session by saying something like this:

• Ask the kids if any of them have seen the Passion of Christ. If they have, did they like it or not? Let any discussion happen.
• After the discussion tell the kids to work together (particularly those who saw the film) to create a "Timeline" of Holy Week on a single sheet of paper or newsprint. Have them give the day, what they think happened on that day and give as many details about that particular day's events. (without using a bible). For example:

Holy Thursday.

1. Jesus told Peter to get a room for the passover (find the guy with the donkey)
2. Celebrate Passover
3. Tell the disciples someone is going to betray him
4. Established The Sacrament of Eucharist
5. Washed the disciples feet
6. Told Peter he would betray him
7. Pray in Gethsemene
8. Arrested.
9. etc.

Fully expect those kids who saw the movie to contribute the most. Film is a powerful medium and will have more effect than the printed page. It's perfectly ok if the kids have gaps in the timeline. Don't fill them in just yet.

• When done, ask them to relate why Jesus's life had to turn out this way. Why did he have to die? Why do you think no one witnessed the resurrection directly? Why did the Jews want him to die?

Spend as much time as you need to delve into these deep issues! ;)

Lesson

Hopefully this process and this discussion will point out that their are so many issues, unknowns, differences etc on the life and death of Jesus. Say to the kids:

• We have four different Gospels and no real time video of the Passion of Jesus. This can cause a problem. Let's demonstrate:

Activity

1. Ask for a volunteer to stand in the center of the group.
2. Everyone else must draw the volunteers face from the perspective they can see, if the person drawing is on the left side of the volunteer they should draw a left profile of the volunteer, from the front, a front view should be drawn etc. if they can't see the face, they must draw it as they remember it.
3. When done share them with one another (it could be good for a laugh) and ask them to choose which drawing is the most real. NOT REALISTIC but real. The correct answer is they all are real. Everyone drew as they saw or thought they saw.

Tying it together

The kids timeline was incomplete, but its what they thought they saw or could remember.

With the discussion about Jesus' life and death their was no consensus but different beliefs and personal feelings about Jesus's death.

With the drawing you all experienced the same thing but your perspective was different.

How people view the life and death of Jesus is based on their religious perspective (like the drawing activity above). What is the Catholic Perspective?

• Have the kids go back to the timeline and ask them to pick the one thing that happened to Jesus that is critical and essential to our faith (The resurrection).

Catholics believe (perspective) that Jesus became the Christ, our savior by his resurrecting from the dead. We call ourselves Easter People - not a Crucifixion People.

If there is time:

Ask the kids to process a question like: Are people basically good or are people basically bad? from an Easter People perspective and from a Crucifixion perspective. Which perspective do they prefer? Other questions to pass through the perspective filter might be:

• Why do people suffer?
• Why is their evil?
• What is sin?